And we told you that the city apparently is not taking "no" for an answer. State law expressly allows "general law" cities, such as Costa Mesa, to contract out "special services," such as jails, it maintains. Costa Mesa's initial error was that it didn't include the union in the decision-making process – but it corrected that, involved the union in discussions. It is not going to lay off union members – it promises they will get other city jobs, or be employed by the new contractor – and so is now free and clear to contract out jail services. If not to G4S, then to another local agency, the city says.

So the union asked the 4th District Court of Appeal to publish its decision, which upheld a trial court's preliminary injunction blocking the city from outsourcing jobs to the private sector – and laying off workers – until legal issues are settled in court.

This is a bit of legal chess that means the decision can be cited as law in courts throughout the state of California – in other instances where, say, the city and its unions are at one another's throats over outsourcing.

But what does it really mean? Forgive us if we feel as if we're in an Orwellian time warp.

"The Court's decision has enormous significance for public employees throughout California, as well as the public they serve," said a statement from Jonathan Yank, an attorney for CMCEA. "It clarifies that general law cities and counties cannot contract with private entities to perform municipal functions except under a narrow set of circumstances, such as when such contracting is specifically permitted by law or when the services would involve certain specialized skills that civil service employees do not possess."

You'll be shocked to know that the city reads things a bit differently.

"The City is pleased that the Court of Appeals published its decision re-affirming the City's right to outsource services," said a prepared statement by Richard Grabowski, special counsel for the city of Costa Mesa. "The Court of Appeal confirmed explicitly that Costa Mesa City Employees Assn. cannot 'veto' the outsourcing of City services pursuant to its agreement with the City. The City intends to move forward in full compliance with the Court's decision and its contractual obligations when it outsources the City's jail operations, which will save taxpayers more than $3 million over the next five years."

We've asked some third-party legal eagle types to weigh in, and we'll let you know what they say when we hear back. The key, however, may be right here, in this bit from the appellate decision:

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